


now i'm covered in you

by ventmethis



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Cute, Domestic, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Moving In Together
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-22
Updated: 2020-12-22
Packaged: 2021-03-10 21:40:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,961
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28234050
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ventmethis/pseuds/ventmethis
Summary: A series of events that lead to Morgan and Reid realizing they live together.
Relationships: Derek Morgan & Spencer Reid, Derek Morgan/Spencer Reid
Comments: 11
Kudos: 225





	now i'm covered in you

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, thanks for tuning in. Just a little one shot idea that I thought of and that I thought would be super cute. 
> 
> Title is from Ivy by Taylor Swift. 
> 
> I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

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Morgan doesn’t really know how he got roped into going shopping with Reid. It’s not like Reid has even been spending much time at his own house so Morgan is unsure as to why they have to go buy groceries. But he’s not going to tell Reid no, so he’s following Reid around Target as he does his shopping.

It’s not that Morgan doesn’t like shopping – he just doesn’t particularly like shopping with Reid. Reid is a guy who works off of a routine. The important and normal parts of his every day life are primarily the same.

Every time Reid goes shopping, his list is nearly the same. He buys the same food every time – mostly non-perishable – and the only things that varies in difference are things like toiletries or other miscellaneous items he may need.

Not only is shopping with Reid sort of boring, it’s also rushed. For Morgan, it doesn’t feel relaxing or entertaining. With Reid’s eidetic memory, he knows exactly where everything is down every aisle and Morgan is confident he could do all the shopping with his eyes closed.

Which is fine except for that means that Reid power-walks through the store. Morgan doesn’t even get time to look at things on his own because Reid is constantly on the move and before Morgan can even process the surrounding things in the aisle, Reid is on his way towards whatever is next on his mental list.

The only helpful thing that Morgan gets out of this shopping trip is the opportunity to watch Reid buy shampoo and conditioner.

In retrospect, it doesn’t seem like a big deal. But Reid has been growing his hair out for a while now and Morgan had never even thought to consider the kind of shampoo and conditioner that Reid uses.

He thinks about the bottle of 2 in 1 he has at his house that he uses, and he thinks about how Reid uses it too and doesn’t complain. But maybe Reid would prefer something else.

Morgan watches as Reid pulls two purple bottles off the shelf without a second thought.

“Why that brand?”

Reid looks over, shocked, almost as if he had forgotten anyone was with him. He tells Morgan, “I’ve been using the OGX brand for years. Not too fragrant so I don’t get any headaches and the ingredients aren’t too bad either, compared to most drug store hair products,” he pauses to put the bottles in the cart before continuing, “the biotin is also a great vitamin for promoting hair growth, which is kind of the goal. Plus, it makes my hair soft.” He finishes, a smile on his face.

“Good to know. Are we done now?” Morgan asks, slightly pinching the skin on Reid’s hip.

Rolling his eyes, Reid pushes the cart and they make their way to the check-out section.

\--

Two weeks later, Morgan does his own grocery shopping when Reid is out for coffee with JJ. He prefers to do his shopping on his own in order to avoid being rushed.

But this time, he finds himself down the hair care aisle, picking out the exact bottles of shampoo and conditioner that he saw Reid pick out last time they were shopping together. He contemplates it briefly before putting it in his cart. He thinks it will be useful for Reid to have a shampoo that he really likes at his place since he spends so much time there anyway.

As soon as Morgan starts to leave the cosmetics section, he remembers last month when Reid came over but forgot his toothbrush at his place. Morgan stops and gets a toothbrush too. Figures it wouldn’t hurt.

As he’s leaving the store, he grabs his phone and sends Reid a text.

**To Spencer: Don’t have to worry about forgetting your toothbrush anymore. Bought one that you can keep at mine.**

\--

The following Monday morning, after spending too long laughing and cuddling in bed before needing to get up for work, they’re sharing a shower to save time. They’re both in an incredible, loving mood and have barely been able to keep their hands and lips off each other since their alarms went off at 5.

“Come on, pretty boy, let me wash your hair before we’re late for work and in trouble with Hotch.”

Reid loves having his hair played with and loves it even more when his boyfriend is the one playing with it. With a chuckle, Reid turns around in the shower so his back is facing Morgan.

Morgan turns around towards the shampoo in the back corner of the shower and pumps it into his hand before lathering it between both hands. He shifts once more and starts to massage it into Reid’s scalp.

Reid recognizes the smell almost immediately and asks, “Is that the shampoo from my house?”

“Sort of. Same brand. Bought some to keep here so you don’t have to keep using the shitty one I buy for myself.”

“Hmm,” Reid starts, his eyes fluttering shut as Morgan continues to scrub his head, “that’s very thoughtful. Thank you.”

Morgan leans down and lays a kiss on Reid’s right shoulder. Little bumps raise on Reid’s skin at the touch.

“No problem. Gotta keep my baby happy, right? Now turn around again so I can rinse your hair and do the conditioner.”

Giddily, Reid turns back around to face Morgan and leans his head back as Morgan runs his fingers through his long hair to get the water out, slightly detangling the small bit of curls as he does.

  *     *       *         *           *             *               *                 *                   *                     *                       *                         *                           *                             *                               * 


Garcia came over early in the morning to drag Morgan along with her for her weekly retail therapy appointment.

She takes him to various stores and it’s not all bad because he’s been able to pick up a few things for himself – mostly shirts and even a new watch.

Garcia takes him to a Marshalls next and it’s the first time Morgan has ever been inside of one. It has everything anyone could really think of inside of it and he’s kind of amazed. He takes one look at the woman’s clothing section and immediately sees why Garcia shops here. It’s full of the same colorful dresses she wears on a daily basis.

Somehow, they end up in the back of the store with all of the different house supplies, ranging from cleaning products to dishes.

Morgan isn’t really looking for anything, but two mugs catch his eye and they’re planted side by side on the shelf. He shakes his head and scoffs, picking up both mugs.

One is a black mug with two chemical beakers on them. One of them is full of an orange chemical with a text box that says _I don’t feel stable!_ and the other is full of green liquid and it says _You’re overreacting._

The second mug is white with gold letters that say _You matter. Unless you multiply yourself by the speed of light squared_ and then in turquoise it says _… then you energy._

He hates the way he automatically thinks of Reid when he sees the mugs. But he’s already decided he’s going to buy one of them, he just doesn’t know which one.

“Hey, Sweetness…” Morgan calls.

Garcia pops around the corner, perky as ever. “Yes?”

“Which do you think Reid would like better?”

“You’re buying him a mug?”

“Don’t mind him using my coffee cups, but he should have one of his own at my place, no? Maybe make him feel more at home.”

Garcia gives him a knowing smile, holding back the screech she wants to let out knowing that Morgan is trying to make Reid feel at home in a place that isn’t technically his home.

Morgan can see the wheels turning in her head and he stops her with a, “Penelope… focus. Which mug?”

Damn him for always trying to avert the topic.

“Well, I think you know him better than I do, hot stuff. But I will say that the second cup really just doesn’t make such sense to me which means he’d probably find it really funny. I’d go with the second one.”

Without a second thought, Morgan puts the cup with the chemical beakers back on the shelf and purchases the second mug.

\--

Morgan seems to get back to his apartment at the perfect time seeing as Reid is standing at the counter, preparing to pour himself what is likely his third or fourth cup of coffee.

“Hey, kid,” Morgan greets, walking into the kitchen.

Reid must not have heard him coming in because he jumps before setting the pot of coffee back down. “Jesus Christ, Derek.”

He laughs and apologizes, setting the bags down on the countertop.

“Didn’t mean to scare you, lover boy. But I picked something up for you and it feels like a perfect time to give it to you.” He pulls the mug out of the bag and hands it over to Reid.

Reid looks the cup over and immediately starts laughing.

“This is great, Derek. Peak comedy.”

Nodding, Morgan says, “Penelope and I didn’t really understand it, that’s how we knew you’d love it.”

Reid looks at Morgan like he has two heads and tells him, “Derek this is basic science, how do you not get it?”

“Eh, more of a history guy myself.”

Reid rolls his eyes and rinses out the cup before proceeding to pour himself a cup of coffee.

“Tastes better coming from a scientific pun,” he says after taking a sip.

“You’re ridiculous, Spence.” Morgan reaches up for a mug and pours himself a cup of coffee. Continuing he says, “But now I’ve got a piece of you in my home. I like it.”

  *     *       *         *           *             *               *                 *                   *                     *                       *                         *                           *                             *                               * 


When Morgan wakes up earlier than usual on a Sunday morning, he decides to go brew coffee and do some work on his laptop whilst he lets Reid keep sleeping.

He doesn’t know the exact time Reid went to bed last night, but he knows it was at least sometime after 2 a.m. because that’s when he got up to use the bathroom and Reid was still in the living room. It’s because of this that he doesn’t want to wake Reid up at 8 in the morning on their day off.

After he starts the coffee, he heads into the living room to turn on the news whilst he waits for it to finish, deciding he can’t do any work until he’s had at least one cup of coffee. Morgan is reaching over for the remote that’s on the coffee table when he notices the book laying there next to it.

Morgan realizes it’s not a book he recognizes as he picks it up to look at it, meaning it must belong to Reid. He assumes Reid either brought it from his house or recently purchased it. He sets the book back down and proceeds to turn on the TV.

\--

Three days later when Morgan is in the dining area packing his laptop away in his bag for work, he notices a stack of four more books on the kitchen table. Curious, he slides each book over so he can see the title of every one. He doesn’t recognize any of these books either, but once again he chooses to ignore it.

When Reid walks into the dining room to pack up his own laptop, Morgan watches as he grabs the book off the top of the stack and puts it in his bag. He raises his eyebrow and nods to himself, glad to know that there isn’t anyone breaking in and leaving books scattered around his apartment.

\--

The next morning, Morgan is the first to wake up for work. As always, he lets Reid sleep in a little later than he does before waking him for work.

He spends the first 15 minutes of him being awake starting a pot of coffee and showering.

After his shower, he walks from the bathroom back to the bedroom, a towel wrapped around his waist. He goes over to the side of the bed that Reid has now claimed. Morgan is about to shake him awake when he sees the book on the bedside table. It’s a completely different book than the others that he has found, and he knows this because where the other books had dull covers, this one is bright and colorful.

Morgan puts his hand on Reid’s shoulder and gently shakes him awake. As soon as he sees Reid’s eyes start to move in an attempt to wake up, Morgan leans down and kisses him gently on the lips. He pulls away briefly and smiles down at Reid before leaning back in and kissing him deeper this time.

“Mmm, morning, baby boy,” Morgan greets.

Groaning, Reid rolls over in bed and stretches. “It’s too soon to be morning. I feel like I didn’t sleep at all.” He rubs at his eyes and turns on the side lamp and tries to adjust to the lighting.

“Stay up late reading?” Morgan asks as he opens the closet door and looks through the different outfits in the closet to pick one to wear.

“Yep, read three of them. One was a re-read.”

“Three? There’s only one on the bedside table?”

“Other two are in the living room. Got ache-y on the couch so I came in here to read. Used my clip-on reading light so as not to wake you,” Reid replies, finally getting out of bed.

Morgan lets out a small laugh and says, “Very respectful, thank you.”

And they both continue to get ready for work, neither of them bringing up the plethora of books popping up around Morgan’s home.

\--

It isn’t until a week and a half later when they get home from working a case out of state, just after three in the morning, that Morgan brings up the books.

He would have kept ignoring it except for that somehow there are now seven more books on his kitchen table.

“Hey, Spence?”

“Yeah?” Reid responds, making his way from the bedroom to the dining room where Morgan is.

“Where are you getting all these books from?”

“Oh, I uh, I’ve been bringing them over from my apartment. You don’t really have any books here, Derek.”

“Do I need books here?” He asks, confused.

“No, no, not at all. I just spend a vast majority of my time reading. I also spend a vast majority of my time here, with you, so I thought it made sense to have books here.” Reid reaches over for his books, ready to move them off of the table.

Morgan places his hand on his before he can get the books off the table and tells him, “The books are fine, you can keep them here. I just wondered, that’s all.”

Morgan can tell by the look on Reid’s face that he had felt under pressure – almost as if he had gotten into trouble for something. Reid gets that way sometimes and he does his best to reassure Reid that there’s nothing wrong, nobody is angry.

“Sorry, it’s just such a concrete part of my routine.”

Laughing, Morgan walks around to the other side of Reid and grabs his hand, walking backwards towards the bedroom. “Relax, baby. I said it’s ok. But no reading tonight, tonight we sleep. Gotta give that big brain of yours a rest after the three days we just had.”

Reid wants to argue, because he’d like to stay up and read at least half of one of the books on the table, but he knows Morgan is right. So he takes over his role of the little spoon and his body curls into Morgan’s perfectly as Morgan plays with his hair until he falls into a deep sleep.

  *     *       *         *           *             *               *                 *                   *                     *                       *                         *                           *                             *                               * 


The stack of books that have now taken residence between the chair and the end table in Morgan’s living room is growing higher and higher with each day that goes by. There are now three different piles and seeing the mess is making him nervous.

He doesn’t want to tell Reid to get rid of the books – he knows Reid likes to re-read them periodically and even if he didn’t, he’d never ask him to put the books elsewhere.

But Morgan is a fairly organized person and he keeps his apartment clean and he doesn’t mind having things on the tables or on shelves but there isn’t room for all of these books and he really does hate seeing them on the floor.

He’s sat on one end of the couch, slowly sipping on his first cup of coffee and he can’t stop staring at the books, trying to think of some sort of resolution.

He grabs his phone from the pocket in his sweatpants and unlocks it before going to Amazon. He searches bookshelves and looks through the multitude of options until he finds a medium sized, cherry wood bookshelf that matches the rest of the furniture he has and that will fit in a corner of his small dining room.

A few days later when they’re away on a case, he receives a notification that the package has been delivered to the office of his apartment building.

Morgan strategically waits until Reid isn’t with him to go and get the large box containing the bookshelf. He knows that if Reid sees him come in with it, Reid will feel bad for leaving his books around his place for long enough that Morgan had to go spend money on a shelf for him.

He’s hoping that he will be able to put the bookshelf together and organize the books on it the same way Reid has them at his own home and that Reid just won’t notice he’s done it. Of course, he knows that’s too good to be true because it’s Reid and Reid is more than observant of his surroundings and takes notice of anything that is new or different in a room.

Morgan builds it anyway and even with following the instructions, it takes him approximately two hours to finish putting together. As soon as it’s built, he puts it in the corner of his dining room on the opposite wall of the window behind his table.

He has to admit, it looks really nice in the room, as if it should have been there all along and the color matches the table perfectly.

Morgan starts carrying the books, as many as he can at a time, and places them on the floor before he begins to organize them and place them on the shelf.

At Reid’s apartment, he uses some sort of make shift Dewey decimal system to organize his books on the shelves, but Morgan doesn’t exactly know how to do that, nor does he care to find out so he sets the 23 books up alphabetically by author’s last name and figures he’ll let Reid adjust it to his own liking later.

Reid shows up a few hours later after spending the first half of their day off babysitting Henry for JJ and Will.

Morgan knows he must notice the lack of books in the living room because there’s a confused look on his face, but he doesn’t say anything.

“Hey, pretty boy. How’s Henry?”

Reid sets his satchel down on the couch, reaching into it to pull out his laptop. “Good. Smart. Active. Maybe a little too active?”

Morgan laughs in response and stands up to meet Reid halfway in a greeting kiss. “My boy getting too old for Henry?” he asks.

“No, not old. Don’t say that.” Reid says, shaking his head. He starts walking towards the dining area where he usually keeps his laptop on the table. “Comes more from being inherently lazy than being ol—” he cuts himself off.

Morgan knows that he must have seen the bookshelf by the way his words stop abruptly.

“Derek did you...” Reid begins, walking closer to examine the bookshelf. He squats down and runs his fingers along the books before continuing with, “These are my books. When did you get a bookshelf?”

Morgan stands up once again from his spot on the living room chair and walks the short distance to where Reid is. He stands against the wall with his arms folded across his chest and smiles, observing Reid looking through the books. “Yeah, I figured you had a lot of books here and I imagine you’ll add more to it. Didn’t see much use to all the books on the floor. Ordered one online, no biggie.”

Reid stands up and walks over to Morgan, who has straightened his own stance and is now standing with his hands in his pockets. When Reid fully approaches him, he reaches his hand out and lets his fingers graze Morgan’s wrist. It’s a small gesture, one that most wouldn’t look at as any sort of significance or importance but seeing as Reid isn’t much for showing emotion, Morgan knows it goes a long way.

“You didn’t have to do that. I could have taken them home. I didn’t mean to clutter your apartment.”

Morgan shakes his head in response and says, “No, no. The books are fine, you can keep ‘em here, it’s really not a big deal.” He leans in to give Reid a kiss and he lets his lips linger on Reid’s for longer than necessary. After pulling away he says, “And like I said, I’m sure there’ll be more. I like that you have books here. It’s good.”

Reid smiles and gives a small nod before looking down at his fingers that are still touching Morgan’s wrist. “Well thank you. I uh, I really appreciate the gesture,” he says, shyly. Reid looks around the room and peaks over into the living room and states matter-of-factly, “it matches. The bookshelf. It matches the kitchen table and the coffee table and even the entertainment center.”

Morgan laughs and follows Reid’s eyes as they scan the room. “I like the cherry wood look, and I like it all to look the same. I think it’s nice that it matches the rest of our furniture.”

The word _our_ stumbles out of his mouth before he even has the chance to process it. It feels like second nature to refer to things as theirs, even when it technically only belongs to one of them. He monitors Reid’s face and body language for any sort of response, but he figures Reid must not have noticed it.

And Reid pretends to ignore the butterflies that swarm his stomach at the idea of something being theirs, together.

  *     *       *         *           *             *               *                 *                   *                     *                       *                         *                           *                             *                               * 


The first of October is three days away and the Quantico office is having a Halloween-themed door decorating competition. Each department gets to choose one person on the team to represent the rest and whoever wins gets a pizza party, courtesy of the Bureau, as well as a $25 gift card for each member of the team.

Whilst most of the BAU doesn’t care about winning, Garcia has sunk her teeth into this competition. Seeing as she is the one who stays back at the office for nearly every case, she takes these events seriously and her competitive nature loves to shine through.

Reid just so happens to have a multitude of old Halloween decorations stored at his apartment that he has offered to Garcia to help her out.

Which is how the two have ended up at his apartment complex. Reid is currently standing outside his door with Garcia, searching for the key to unlock his door.

Reid doesn’t mind coming all the way out to his place because he could do with grabbing more books to take with him back to Morgan’s and maybe even some clothes, although his collection of clothing at Morgan’s has also grown as of late.

When they get inside, Garcia follows Reid back to the small closet in the hall next to his bedroom.

“Man, I wish my storage closets were this organized,” Garcia comments.

Laughing as he grabs a tote and hands it to Garcia, he says, “Well, it helps if you don’t ever use any of the stuff. My best piece of advice is to put storage in the closet but never open it after.”

He grabs a second tote and he and Garcia go back into the living room, sitting on the couch to look through the totes for things she can use.

It takes a minute and 27 seconds for Reid to stop looking through the totes and stop listening to whatever it is that Garcia is rambling about because he gets distracted.

The sun is glaring in through the blinds and he focuses in on the particles of dust that he can see through the streaks of the sun shining in.

Reid knows that small particles of dust and dead skin are completely normal and even inevitable. It’s impossible to keep any given place completely free of particles such as this. But it’s different this time. It’s much more than he’d be used to seeing and he can’t keep his eyes from zooming in on it.

Seconds later he’s slowly looking around the room at different surfaces in his apartment. He looks at the coffee table and then the small chair and then the windowsill. Finally, and frantically, his eyes focus on the bookshelf and all of the books lined on it.

At this point, Garcia has stopped talking. She noticed a few seconds ago the way he zoned out and started moving his head, looking around his living room. She asks him what’s wrong, but he must not hear her because he doesn’t even acknowledge her question. She thinks something must be terribly wrong if he’s ignoring her and for a brief moment she’s scared.

Reid leaves his seat on the couch and walks to his bookshelf.

Garcia watches as he runs his finger along the space on the bookshelf that isn’t occupied by books and keeps watching as he studies his finger.

“Spencer?”

Still, nothing.

“Spencer, what’s wrong?”

“Dust.”

“What?”

“There’s dust. On the bookshelf,” he moves to the coffee table and runs a clean finger along its edge, “the coffee table,” he moves once more over the taller square table he has by the door where he sets his keys. “everywhere. Dust.”

Confused, Garcia tells him, “Yeah, dust accumulates. I feel like you should know that.”

“I do, I do know that. But I dust. Penelope, I’m a very clean person. I don’t like dust. I have allergies, dust makes it flare up. I don’t let dust accumulate, not like this. This is… Pen, this is at least three and a half weeks’ worth of dust, layered onto everything in my living room.”

“Ok, so you forgot to dust a few times. That’s totally fine, silly. Nothing to be worried over.”

“No, that’s the problem, I didn’t forget to dust.” Reid is still standing in the same place, looking intently at his dust covered fingertips.

“I’m sorry, Spencer, I’m just really not understanding the issue. I’m not as good as you at analyzing people’s behaviors and reactions. I’m actually very, very confused, boy genius.”

“I didn’t forget to dust; I just haven’t dusted. Because I haven’t been here in three and a half weeks. I haven’t stepped foot into my apartment in three and a half weeks. Isn’t that concerning?” Finally, he looks up from his fingers and over to Garcia.

“No?” Garcia responds, a tone that hints at her being scared of that not being the right answer. When he furrows his eyebrows at her response, she continues, “I just don’t see why you would dust, or why you would need to. Reid, you don’t stay here. You basically live at Derek’s.”

Walking to the kitchen to wash off his fingers, he asks, “Do I?”

Garcia laughs and explains, “I don’t keep close tabs on your life, but I can’t remember the last time either of you stayed somewhere that wasn’t a hotel on a case or at Derek’s. I mean, half of your wardrobe is at his place and didn’t he just buy you that bookshelf? To be honest, I was surprised when you said we had to come here for the decorations. Didn’t even know you were still paying rent for your own place.”

Reid sits back down on the couch next to Garcia, confused and feeling slightly lightheaded. “I live with Derek?”

“Essentially, yes. I’d very much say that whether or not you both have discussed living together, his home is more of your home than this apartment is. Is that a bad thing?”

He shakes his head and says, “No, no I just… I didn’t know. I hadn’t realized.”

With a smirk, Garcia perks up her shoulders and says, “Huh. For once, I know something you don’t. Not so genius now, are you?”

“Be quiet,” he tells her, pulling out his phone. He opens his text thread with Morgan and composes a message.

**Spencer: Do we live together? Did I miss something?**

**Derek: I’m having a great day, thanks for asking, baby. How’s yours?**

**Spencer: I’m serious.**

**Derek: I’d say we definitely cohabitate**

**Spencer: I haven’t dusted in over three weeks.**

**Derek: You just dusted the whole place yesterday, what are you talking about?**

**Spencer: No, my apartment. I haven’t dusted my apartment. Do we live together?**

**Derek: Do you want to live together?**

**Spencer: I mean, I’m not opposed. Penelope said we lived together, and I just don’t know how that slipped by me.**

**Derek: Then we live together, kid. No need to overthink it.**

Slipping his phone back into his pocket, he starts to sift through the tote of decorations once more, a small smile resting on his lips.


End file.
